I'm also hoping they're warm enough. We have a straw bale on either side of their little area inside a horse stall in a horse barn, a kerosene heater and a heat lamp, with lots of straw. They are sticking pretty close to the heater.
These are first babies for both the doe and for me.
Thanks for any additional advice.
Susan O'Neill
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This year I have a full fledged barn, so a doe and her kids will be in a kidding stall for 2-3 days and then, if everyone is doing well and is healthy they will be allowed out into the general population.
When the kids are two weeks old, then they will start spending the night separated so that I can milk in the morning before turning them back out with their dam. Some folks wean kids at 8 weeks old, but I much prefer to leave them until they are a minimum of 12 weeks. I think it makes for healthier kids in the long run.
Some of the goat dairies that bottle feed are now extending their bottle feeding of doe kids until they are 5-6 months old. I had one doe kid I bottle fed last year and after seeing her growth I have a feeling they are doing that to get the extra growth for breeding early (at 7-8 months old) another other of those things that I don't do just because I think they will be better does over the long haul if they have a chance to mature a bit more before breeding.
Susan O'Neill said:
I let moms and babies together after a week or two. I've never had one injure another kid, although once I did see a mama grab a kid by the tail and toss it when it tried to nurse from her, rather than his own mama. Most does do save their milk for their own babies. I wouldn't let babies in with bucks, but I don't worry about them with other goats. They usually ignore babies.
As for outside, it's probably okay as long as they have a shelter where they can get out of the wind if they get cold.
If you only have two kids each, you can separate them overnight (start with 8 hours, then 10 hours, then 12 hours) if you want to milk the mama in the morning for your own milk. I'd also start with every two or three days. By a month, if the kids are looking good, you can separate mama and babies every night for 12 hours. When mamas have three or four, I don't start milking them until the kids are two months old, which is also when you can wean, if you want. When we're keeping does, we don't wean them. We just let them stay with mama when we don't want to milk, and we separate them when we do want the milk. The daughter doesn't need the milk at that point, but it provides us with some flexibility about milking.
I hate disbudding also, but it's safer for the humans who have to handle goats daily, and I'd worry about someone dehorning them as adults if I didn't disbud them as kids, and dehorning sometimes kills them.
Deborah
Susan O'Neill said:
A couple of questions:
1) The vet said that one of the goats had lice. Ick. Is that due to a dirty barn, or where would they come from? I'm thinking I need to treat everybody, right? He really didn't have anything for this (I found that strange), but I'm assuming I can find something at Farm & Fleet, right?
2) I haven't really let the goats out of the barn since the babies were born. Reminder, I have two mothers, with two babies each. Are the mothers likely to be going stir-crazy, and if I let them out for awhile, will they still want to come back? They cry when I leave the barn.
When will it be OK to let the babies outside? I have let them run up and down the aisle in the barn, but have not really let them outside yet. Also, when is it really warm enough to let babies out anyway?
3) How long will the mothers be nursing them? I probably need to read up on this, because I'm sure it has to do with alot of factors, such as, do I want to make goat cheese, and all that.
4) When will I or will I be able to trust the mothers around the goats that are not their own? I have actually been keeping the one goat for someone else who did not have a place to keep her, but she will be taking her and at least one of the babies home soon. I would like her to take both, but that's another story...If she only takes one (the female) and leaves the white male (the one who was badly bitten by my doe), will I need to be worried that my doe will attack him again, or does that go away when they are done nursing?
5) Will I need to worry about the other goats attacking the babies? It's the two white ones that were the ones picked on.
Well, I guess that's more than a couple of questions, but I will appreciate any and all responses. Thank you!
Susan
Susan O'Neill said:
I had been seeing the mothers butting the babies of the other mother away, and although I didn't like it, I figured that was just their way of saving their milk for their own babies. But this looks pretty serious. I put some antibiotic cream on both, but I'm also going to have the vet come out just to check on them.
Also, one of the mothers has been walking away from her white one in the middle of him trying to nurse. He's the smallest of the four babies, and I'm worried about him. Both of the white babies seem to still move around OK, but their wounds really concern me.
Has anyone had anything like this happen to them? This is very distressing.
Susan O'Neill said:
I went out to the barn yesterday morning, and I heard the little goats crying - except the sounds were coming from the wrong pen. As I walked down to where the racket was coming from, my mind was racing. How did they get down there??
Well, my other doe, who I thought wasn't that big and so probably had another month - she had delivered two of her own!
Things are settled down today, but what a day yesterday was! I now have two mothers on opposite sides of the stall. The ones born on Saturday are already jumping around and acting goofy. The larger one born yesterday seems OK, but I've been babying the smaller one, who had to be held up and led to the nipple. Once he's there, he drinks like crazy, and he seemed steadier on his feet last night.
I was supposed to go into work yesterday afternoon, but luckily I'm set up to work at home, too, so I alternated between doing interviews (I'm a reporter) and checking on the latest pair.
The two does fight over any food I put down; they're really acting like babies, and the little one born Saturday wanders over occasionally to see what the new mama's milk is like. I don't really want her to waste her milk, because I feel like the newest, littlest one really needs it.
How does that happen, that the one kid is about twice the size as the other?
My husband just went out on his way to work, and helped the little one over to the teat. Once again, drank a ton. It's a good thing I work at home on Tuesdays!
I would milk my does then bottle feed the kids so I would have friendly goats and when they got bigger, they were easy to get on the milk stand. I also am learning to use this site and look forward to hearing from you again.
Glad to hear everyone is doing well. Would love to see photos, if you get a chance!
Susan O'Neill said:
The mom is VERY interested in eating. I think she would eat grain 24/7, if we gave it to her. Which we don't. But she'll walk right over them to come towards me if I have food for her. I guess she needs her strength.
They all seem to be doing pretty well, though.
Thanks for everything. This can be a little daunting at first.
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